Making Squirrel bodies adjustable to any poses....

[George Roof]

Snowhare, you missed Matt's point.  We DON'T like doing them but if we're going to HAVE TO DO THEM, then we're insisting on getting paid for it.  We don't GET a lot of squirrels because we're controlling our workloads by inflating the prices.  Marcus Zimmerman is on the Super Seminar video  along with brother Ken and Jason Snowberger when someone in the audience asks him what he charges for a squirrel.  As if on cue, all three men say "$375".  Why should I do a whitetail for $475 that takes me 6 hours but only charge $100 for a squirrel that takes me 3-4 to do it right?

[Matt]

George, maybe he doesn't believe you either!(LOL)

[snowhare]

NO I DONT , I AM ALWAYS A BIT ON MY GARD WITH PRISES , SO EVERY BODDY JUST CAN SAY WHAT THEY WANT , NEED PROOF SORRY , MABY IT IS THAT I AM FROM THE GREAT EUROPE , EH GEORGEY

WE DONT LIKE THEM BUT WE HAVE TO DO THEM , WELL THAT DUS NOT GOOS AT MY SHOP , IF I SAY I DONT I NEVER EVER WILL , JUST A LACK OF BACKBONE , I WILL NOT MOUT A FOX IN A MILJON YEARS , SO YOU CAN PAY ME A FRIGGING FORTUNE , NO NO NO , MONEY IS NOT ALL THERE IS MAN


BUT ON THE OTHER END THE US DOLLAR IS SO LOW IN VALLUE , THAT I ASK ALMOOST THE SAME HERE BUT THEN IN THE GREAT EURO S 200 EURO IS NOW A FINE 299, US DOLLAR
 

[lee, tees valley]

   

[WLdLfeArt]

Thanks LionHeart, that was a good tutorial. The only thing I will add that nobody mentioned is use good reference materials, and you will be able to get a good lifelike pose. Don't let the nay sayers tell you different. There is no difference between a wrapped body and a form, its basiclly the same concept. Use reference material and you will have a good quality mount anyone will enjoy. Yes I agree, in a shop when you don't have time to wrap bodies, its much more cost effective to buy forms to save on time. But if you enjoy wrapping your own bodies, I say go for it. Its a good way to learn.

[RileyBaxter]

Looks neat, I might have to do this for my first mount.. Which will propably be a squirrel, if I ever get around to it I will post pics.

[racksandriverstaxidermy]

LMAO nice

[Crimson]

I'm marking this for sure - sooooo helpful!

[Teh_Saccade]

The way that I have prepared my wire-boned mounts is to simply poke the same wires that I use for bonsia through sections of polystyrene that I have carved into the 'correct' shapes for the muscles and bulk between the joints.
I've soldered some thinner wires at the ends, after trimming right down, to allow for the 'flexi-pose' - one reservation that I've got is that if I mess with them too much, the wire will become brittle and may snap... I'm hoping that this will allow for fine tuning of the attitude once the pelt is mounted.

For the body, I have made one with a solid piece (as the forms you can buy) where I can poke the appendages' terminus into the foam to hook 'em up; I've made another one that is a tube of chicken wire, with heavy gauge wire for spine and wrapped with raffan, to allow for 'scruntching'; the other way I will now try, after reading this, is to use wood-wool (or whatever that stuff is...).

So far, I'm not too happy with how the body is shaping up to be, apart from the solid piece - they all look a bit "bubbly" and too curved and unnatural...
However, the "Action-Man/Barbie" method of crafting solid pieces for the limbs, neck and head (and, to a lesser extent, tail - which is just a few pieces of different gauge wire, gradiating out), seems to look okay.

You know, I don't know why the body forms that you can buy do not have more adjustibility, but I guess you can do that so long as you are careful and can find a pre-formed piece that is along the same form as you want.
Then, it's just a case or a little hacksaw and bonder action, huh?

A few questions I have about this stuff are:
Do you also remove the bones in the feet? I have just snipped them at the ankle and injected formaline 30-1 solution, then pinned them into position. What would you use to 'fill' these with? I suppose you could inject glue, or plaster?

Which leads me onto the other question I have:
I was gonna try to make my own form, by molding the body, and then pouring plaster or some latex with hardener (don't want it to be all jelly-like!) into that, onto which to mount the pelts...
Has anyone any experience with that - I can't seem to find much relating to it around here - because I've thought about just sculpting or molding body forms from modelling clay but I think that may make it damp inside, which probably isn't a good thing?

Thanks for the ideas, man

[April Payne]

Very cute poses. I like your idea about making the joints movable for easier posing. Even if it is an old idea being refreshed. I'm not very keen on wrapping bodies, but if I ever do then I am definitely using this method. 

[George Roof]

Did either of you look at my method in the tutorial? Its "Mounting tube skinned small game". Why does anyone NEED a "flexible" joint? Would you feel that way about a life-size large animal? Excelsior will work but there are so much better mediums out there. Plastic foam is one but us old guys started out with carving balsa wood.

[Timber Ghost]

You know that is impressive work.
However,
I accomplish very I mean very lifelike work using SAWDUST, VERY FINE SAWDUST TO FILL BODY AND SHAPE ANY WAY I LIKE.
IT IS A GREAT,FAST,ECONOMIC, WAY TO MOUNT SQUIRRELS.

Not putting your very skilled way down.
JUST SAYING, as an alternative.

[George Roof]

Timber Ghost, that too is an antiquated method.  Sawdust is too sensitive to humidity to be a viable medium.  Excelsior is bad enough. Today, vermiculite is better received and will not be effected by temperature or humidity. If you want a "cheap" medium, use what I used as a kid: SAND.  Sand works especially well and is completely inert, but I challenge any of you to match your best attempt with sand OR SAWDUST up against a quality wrapped form OR BETTER YET, a molded plastic foam form.